INFO 638
Assignment #3 – Project Control & Management

Due date for this assignment is on the syllabus.
As usual, there are no specific page limits.

Continuing the project used for Assignments 1 and 2, now you are defining the approach that will be used to manage your project. The purpose of this section is to give your customer confidence that, once your project begins, you will have adequate and appropriate controls in place to manage it well.

1. Define how your project will report status, and to whom.
A diagram might help show who reports to whom, something like this:

For each type of report or status meeting (e.g. Weekly Issues Review above), identify: who prepares it, who receives it, how often it is prepared, time scope (past, present, and future – and how far into the past and/or future), and what kind of content it has (technical, management, cost, etc.). A tabular summary for each kind of report can be done, or use narrative text.
Technical content can, for example, address accomplishments, focus on problems and issues, plan for future needs, etc.
Consider whether sensitive issues like risks and cost are addressed. Some lower level audiences (e.g. project staff) might know effort but not cost, for example.
Each unique report name in the diagram only needs to be described once. In the example above, there are four kinds of reports that would be described; don’t describe the Weekly Issues Review twice.
Make sure to use the same name and capitalization for each report or meeting consistently - in describing the example, if you referred to just Weekly Status, I don’t know if you mean the Review or Report.
2. Define the types of meetings that will occur, both periodically and as needed.
For each type of meeting, define its purpose, who will attend, when it will be held, and what kind of decisions will need to be made.
How will the results of each meeting be captured (e.g. minutes)? How will followup actions be managed (e.g. action items)? Will each meeting control minutes and action items for itself, or will there be a central repository for the project?
Some of the purposes might include
Review of status and progress (might be more than one in this category, and there could be overlap with the previous section of the assignment)
Risk management
Change control (see next section)
Escalation (if problems aren’t addressed at the lowest level, who resolves them?)
3. Define the change control process for your project. Whether for a proposed new feature, a defect, a customer complaint, or an upgrade in a commercial component of your system, define the process that will